A new society for anyone interested in exploring the heritage of the Stour Valley and Dedham Vale on the borders of Essex and Suffolk, Stour Valley Community Archaeology (SVCA) is now ready to recruit members and start fundraising for their first excavation. SVCA has been formed by a group of local residents who volunteered regularly with archaeological activities run in the area by Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA) as part of Managing a Masterpiece, a Heritage Lottery Funded landscape partnership. Now that the three year project has come to a close, SVCA intends to build on the Managing a Masterpiece legacy and continue running a programme of excavations open to people of all ages and abilities.

Membership forms and futher details are available from stourvalleyarchaeology@gmail.com. Membership rates for 2014 are as follows: Adult £10, Family (at same address) £15, Students/Under 18’s £5. SVCA members will have access to regular newsletters…

Stour Valley Community Archaeology is up and running! We have plans in place for our first excavation, revisiting Goldingham Hall, and are now actively fundraising. As this will be our first excavation as the newly-formed SVCA, our fundraising efforts not only need to cover the costs of archaeologists, insurance and specialist reports, but also equipment; trowels, mattocks, sieves, finds bags, measuring tapes etc. Watch this space to keep up to date with our fundraising efforts and please get in touch to find out how you can help.

Since 2010, the Managing a Masterpiece programme has received £1.1 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, part of the Heritage Lottery Fund, to run 62 projects delivering over 3500 volunteer days. The archaeological projects account for well over half of those volunteer days, and the majority of these projects were supervised by Access Cambridge Archaeology (ACA). The final Managing a Masterpiece event was ACA’s community excavations at Goldingham Hall, near Bulmer, last October and as a result of this and other activities run by ACA, a new society, Stour Valley Community Archaeology (SVCA), is currently being set up by local volunteers to continue discovering and enjoying the area’s heritage.

A film has been released to showcase several of the Managing a Masterpiece projects and their legacy as the programme comes to a close. The film (embedded below) has been produced and directed by Amanda Findley…

Here is a link to a YouTube video highlighting the various projects, and perhaps more importantly, the legacy of Managing A Masterpiece. Stour Valley Community Archaeology is a part of that legacy. Enjoy.